Arthur Hugh Clough.

WORTH WHILE

A little boy whom his mother had rebuked for not turning a deaf ear to temptation protested, with tears, that he had no deaf ear.  But temptation, even when heard, must somehow be resisted.  Yea, especially when heard!  We deserve no credit for resisting it unless it comes to our ears like the voice of the siren.

  It is easy enough to be pleasant,
    When life flows by like a song,
  But the man worth while is one who will smile,
    When everything goes dead wrong. 
  For the test of the heart is trouble,
    And it always comes with the years,
  And the smile that is worth the praises of earth,
    Is the smile that shines through tears.

  It is easy enough to be prudent,
    When nothing tempts you to stray,
  When without or within no voice of sin
    Is luring your soul away;
  But it’s only a negative virtue
    Until it is tried by fire,
  And the life that is worth the honor on earth,
    Is the one that resists desire.

  By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
    Who had no strength for the strife,
  The world’s highway is cumbered to-day,
    They make up the sum of life. 
  But the virtue that conquers passion,
    And the sorrow that hides in a smile,
  It is these that are worth the homage on earth
    For we find them but once in a while.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

From “Poems of Sentiment.”

HOPE

Gloom and despair are really ignorance in another form.  They fail to reckon with the fact that what appears to be baneful often turns out to be good.  Lincoln lost the senatorship to Douglas and thought he had ended his career; had he won the contest, he might have remained only a senator.  Life often has surprise parties for us.  Things come to us masked in gloom and black; but Time, the revealer, strips off the disguise, and lo, what we have is blessings.

  Never go gloomy, man with a mind,
    Hope is a better companion than fear;
  Providence, ever benignant and kind,
    Gives with a smile what you take with a tear;
      All will be right,
      Look to the light. 
  Morning was ever the daughter of night;
  All that was black will be all that is bright,
     Cheerily, cheerily, then cheer up.

  Many a foe is a friend in disguise,
    Many a trouble a blessing most true,
  Helping the heart to be happy and wise,
    With love ever precious and joys ever new. 
      Stand in the van,
      Strike like a man! 
  This is the bravest and cleverest plan;
  Trusting in God while you do what you can. 
     Cheerily, cheerily, then cheer up.

Anonymous.

I’M GLAD